Why Your Hormones Are Hurting You

Happy Easter everyone! For those who are travelling this weekend, stay super safe and enjoy this wonderful Easter weather we are set to have! You'll be delighted to know that this week I've avoided all the cliché 'Watch your Waistline' and 'Why Sugar is Bad for You' blog content you may see this Easter. I figured it is probably futile in saying either of these right now - I simply can't compete with a 4 day weekend and a chocolate river of commercially scintillating temptations. So I won't.

Instead - I thought the topic of pain and hormones would be far more interesting...oh well - I can at least try to involve you in a health topic this weekend...

Have you noticed that at certain times you feel strong and capable in your muscles and at others - you feel fatigued, sore and unresponsive? Part of this is dietary related - if you don't fuel up well before you exercise, your body starts to draw 'energy' in the form of your muscle mass. This is extremely inflammatory and wherever there is inflammation, there'll be a high probability of pain. Magnesium deficiency can contribute greatly to this as well as sugar cravings.

At certain times of the female cycle, surges of hormones - mainly oestrogen and progesterone - can also contribute to this pain. Hormone induced pain involving oestrogen however isn't just one for the ladies - men who carry too much oestrogen in their bodies can also experience this. In men however, that imbalance also affects testosterone processing - which is often why when oestrogen (I call this the OMG I'm a Pain hormone) is high in either men or women, testosterone (I call it the Growth and Grunt hormone) is commonly also out of whack. What we often find is that artificial hormones introduced to the body do adversely impact on joint and bone health - and are often associated with spinal pain.

Thyroid hormones are also important here - as the traffic cops of the hormonal highway - they feedback up to the brain where the next lot of hormones mentioned below are released in response to pain. If your thyroid is under road works - you may find the amount of pain relieving help your brain can trigger backs up to one mother of a traffic snarl.

Hormones are great pain relievers/endorphins - serotonin and dopamine for example are used by the body to balance the pain response. You have receptors for serotonin in your gut very reliant on probiotic functions to work well - so guess what - if you add sugar rich foods (known to cause inflammation) to a gut that is probiotic deficient - you can get pain...and it hurts more when you push your body as in during exercise.

Before you say 'there it is - exercise is bad for you and causes pain' - don't even think about it! Exercise may do that in the short term as your body tries to flush itself of Chocolate Redbull Alcohol and Pain medication - but in the long term - exercise increases your pain relieving endorphins and your testosterone levels in a seriously good way!

Remember - that old joke 'How do you make a hormone'? The real answer is so far from the punch line...Happy Easter

As a naturopath I believe that patients are looking for empathy, results oriented and achievable health advice as well as consideration for the family budget when it comes to supplement and remedy selection.Nicky Wood -Gold Coast Naturopath